Headquarters for IT training school to bring 200+ jobs to new Holly Springs development
MyComputerCareer, a Raleigh-based IT career training school, is moving its headquarters to a new mixed-use development in Holly Springs — a move that’s expected to add more than 200 new jobs.
The Holly Springs Town Council approved plans last week for the 20-acre development at 1317 N. Main St., north of Ting Park.
The development will have office space for MyComputerCareer, apartments, retail space and a 1,000-seat performing arts theater. The project will be developed by Triangle firm Capital Associates and affordable housing developer DHIC.
Following public hearings and review by the town’s planning board, the town council approved the development agreement and a rezoning request that allows building up to six stories, or 75 feet high. The site is on Sportsmanship Way between N.C. 55 and North Main Street.
The corporate headquarters calls for an estimated $24 million capital investment and $3 million for the retail portion, said town development planner Sean Ryan at Tuesday’s council meeting. The cost of the theater has not yet been determined.
The new MyComputerCareer headquarters will be in an 85,000-square-foot office building, plans show. It will replace an existing headquarters in Holly Springs. Company officials tell The News & Observer that up to 525 people will be employed at the facility, including roughly 300 existing jobs in the Triangle.
MyComputerCareer, which has its flagship location in Raleigh, provides hands-on training and IT certifications at technical colleges in several other states across the country.
“We just really like Holly Springs,” said Bruce Ackerman, chief marketing officer of MyComputerCareer. “It’s a growing community and a lot of people are moving there and we think it’s going to be great base of operations for us to find great people.”
The school has grown significantly in the last four years and has outgrown its current offices, Ackerman told The N&O in an interview. This past February, MyComputerCareer had 4,059 graduates across all campuses during its virtual graduation ceremony.
Their record class was nearly 800 graduates larger than 2019, and more than 2,000 larger than 2018, they said.
In an innovative partnership, Capital Associates has been working with DHIC to build affordable housing units on the site of the development.
“We have been working together with DHIC through the zoning process, and we’re getting ready to move on to site plan approval,” Frank Baird, CEO of Capital Associates, said in an interview.
He said he hopes construction can begin this fall. It will take a year to build and is slated to be completed by late fall of 2022.
Capital Associates’ past developments include the Duke Clinical Research Institute building in downtown Durham and the BB&T Bank high-rise in Raleigh.
“We think it will have some good restaurant opportunities, and with the performing arts center there, that would be pretty nice,” Baird said. The project is envisioned as a gathering place and entertainment destination for families and locals.
Affordable housing portion
The residential part of the site will have 124 residential units between one to three bedrooms in buildings of at least three stories. There also will be a playground, community center and outside picnic areas, according to the development agreement.
DHIC told the Town Council last week that the units would be within 60% of the area median income and that they currently project a $25 million development cost.
“There’s lot of all growth in Holly Springs, and it’s really important that all types of income levels can live here — all the people that are doing service jobs, retail jobs, working in schools, all types of things,” DHIC development planner Natalie Britt told the council. “It takes a variety of folks to make a community successful, and I think it’s important that we disperse affordable housing through Wake County.”
Wake County sold the property to the town for development. The town selected the developers’ proposal for the site last year and designated the property for affordable housing development while the town sought economic development projects for the site, according to a report by town staff.
This news comes after Japanese drug contract manufacturer Fujifilm Diosynth announced last month it would make a $1.5 billion investment in a new facility in Holly Springs that would create 725 new jobs over five years.
